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Saturday, July 14, 2012

The Female Journalists of Juarez

By VICE News

You probably heard that there were presidential elections in Mexico on July 1. Most foreign media outlets reported that the main issue in the election was the insane violence that has caused anywhere between 40,000 and 80,000 deaths during the last administration because of turf wars between the drug cartels, the federal police, and the army. But the truth is, most of the candidates barely discussed the issue.

In all three political debates during the campaigns, the candidates never mentioned the victims and just talked about “the violence” and “the organized crime” in abstract terms, and offered very vague solutions to the situation. The mainstream Mexican press focused on the economy and the student movement, but mostly, it seemed, on the personalities of the candidates.

It's pretty clear that the mainstream media in Mexico supported the PRI candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto, who will most likely be the next president, despite tons of allegations of vote-buying and fraud. But the violence is very real, and it will be the biggest issue on the new president’s plate once he takes office in December. We still have no idea what he's going to do.

The violence that escalated during Felipe Calderon’s term mostly took place in Ciudad Juarez, right on the Texas border. Over the last five and a half years, more than 11,000 people have been killed in Juarez.

It’s thought that the violence escalated once the Sinaloa Cartel tried to kick out the local Juarez Cartel in order to control this entry point into the US. During the last year, the violence has decreased a bit, perhaps because the Sinaloa Cartel won, and perhaps because the federal police and the army, who were also fighthing the cartels, finally left.

We went to Ciudad Juarez to meet the journalists who cover politics and crime for the Diario de Juarez. All of them are women and they have covered more crimes than anyone we can think of.

They are also some of the bravest women we've ever met. We followed them around the city as they covered political rallies of the ruling party, PAN, and to crime scenes, to try to understand what happened there over the past few years and why the candidates were not fully addressing the most glaring issue in Mexican politics right now.

17 comments:

I live in El Paso and for some reason everybody away from here believes the media that the cds has won and thats why the violence has calmed in juarez, when in reality its totally the oposite. Now, i dont support any cartels, but i have friends & family in juarez and i go there almost every weekend, and let me tell you that la linea is still very strong in juarez. even the aztecas are opening offices in juarez. Maybe chapo is rich and powerful, and has lots of corridos, but even with the help ofover 5000 mexican soldiers, and hundreds of federal policemen, he still cannot control juarez. I really dont care whow wins, as long as we go back to the peaceful juarez that it used to be.

Buggs, very cool that you posted a video and story from Vice. While I don't always agree with them, they do some amazing documentation. One of the things that stood out the most to me was the kids who were pretending they were running for office and what they wanted. What a direct contrast to the poor in the US. Every single kid said they want jobs, not handouts. And though I don't agree with Calderon and some of his tactics you have to give him credit for trying. Something no one else even tried. But how can you achieve your goal when everyone is being bribed by differing factions? Face it, my people are a corrupt race. Good luck to these women and I hope they "keep their head". Really.

Perhaps the only to do bring peace to Mexico is to put the whole country on a war footing, including using martial laws.And conscription of all able-bodied persons into the armed forces.And bring back the death penalty.

Could it be true? that the Mexican people ELECTED a President,and the people HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HE IS GOING TO DO ABOUT THE DRUG VIOLENCE. I believe this is true whcch demonstrates Ignorance,Passivity and uninvolvment of Mexican voters not to mention one hell of a negative comment on the entire Election in Mexico, insanity reigns.

These women and real reporters, not like the reporters in Canada and the USA who are busy reporting bullshit all the time. Our reporters and leftie, feminists who wouldn't have the guts to do what these Mexican ladies are doing.

It's nice to see a story on real reporters putting their lives on the line every day. I hope the Lord protects these women. The Virgin Mary will be watching over them as well.

Attn: CBC, CTV, NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC and all other b.s. news station that have women/men reporters...this is what a real reporter does...reports the news in a truthful, unbiased way.